Norton_Simon_Museum

Norton Simon Museum

The Norton Simon Museum is a premier art museum located in Pasadena, California. It was previously known by several other names, such as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.

Overview

The Simon collections include European painting, sculpture, tapestry and some remarkable sculpture from South Asia. Outside gardens also house sculpture, as well as a small pond. The museum is located along the route of the Tournament of Roses Parade, where its distinctive, brown tile-exterior can be seen in the background on television.

The museum features a theater which shows various films throughout the day; it also hosts lectures, symposia, and dance and several musical performances year-round.

History

The Pasadena Art Museum was completed in 1969, designed by Pasadena architects Thornton Ladd and John Kelsey. The exterior is covered with 115,000 brown tiles made by Edith Heath.
In the early 1970s, due to an ambitious schedule of progressive art exhibits and a new building project, the museum began to experience extreme financial hardships. Starting in mid-1960s, industrialist Norton Simon rose to become one of the pre-eminent art collectors in the world; by the 1970s he was searching for a permanent location for his growing collection of over 4,000 objects. In 1974, the museum and Simon came to an agreement: Simon absorbed the museum's debts and became responsible for the collection and building projects; In return the museum was renamed the Norton Simon Museum.

In 1995, the museum began a major renovation by architect Frank Gehry. The redesign resulted in more intimate galleries, improved lighting, increased rotating exhibition space and an entire floor devoted to Asian art. The gardens were redesigned by Nancy Goslee Power to house the 20th century sculpture collection. The new Norton Simon Theater was the final element of the renovation, designed by Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates Inc., and is used for lectures, film, dance performances and concerts.

Collections

The Norton Simon Museum contains a wide permanent collection of paintings from the 14th century to the 20th, and it is widely considered by many as one of the best among private collectors. It also hosts temporary exhibitions that can treat of a given painter (e.g. 'Picasso's Toros'), art movements (avant-garde) or art developed in a specific area (often located in Asia, e.g. 'Sacred Treasures from Tibet, Nepal and Northern India').